Rassie a major loss
13 Jan 2012
JON CARDINELLI writes the architect of the Stormers and Western Province rugby revival has left a gaping hole with his forced resignation.
Most people will focus on a trophy cabinet devoid of major titles, but they need to remember that there was a time where the Stormers battled to finish mid-table let alone contend for the play-offs. Those dark days weren’t too long ago, and it’s largely thanks to Rassie Erasmus that the Cape side and its supporters now hold such high standards.
The Stormers are one of South Africa’s biggest and richest teams and have been blessed with a number of talented international players over the years. But make no mistake, in the period before Erasmus arrived, they were more rags than riches, more flash than substance. Their Super Rugby log finishes in the years of 2006 (11th) and 2007 (10th) confirm as much, and it was always going to be difficult for the next coach to effect a turnaround.
Against the odds, Erasmus enjoyed immediate success. The Stormers narrowly missed out on a semi-final place in the 2008 Super 14, but the season was hailed as a massive improvement. They occupied more familiar territory (10th on the log) in the 2009 Super 14, but were back on track in 2010 where they qualified for their first Super Rugby final. While they only made it as far as the semis in the revamped 15-team competition in 2011, they claimed a consolation prize in the form of the South African conference trophy, an accolade that affirmed their status as the best side in South Africa.
During his four-year stint, Erasmus made a number of decisions that ultimately aided the Stormers’ rise as a South African superpower. He brought about a culture change, as well as more structure, to a Cape side in dire need of both. He brought Jacques Nienaber, his former conditioning coach at the Cheetahs, down to Cape Town and eventually installed Nienaber as the defence coach. The Stormers proceeded to become the best defensive unit in the competition in 2010 and 2011. At one stage, Erasmus contracted mixed martial arts expert Omar Mouneimne (who recently served as Italy’s defence coach) as a collisions coach in an effort to lift the Stormers’ physicality. As was the case with their defence, the Stormers showed a marked improvement in this facet of play.
Erasmus’s value as a guru on matters of a technical nature has never been in doubt. He was used by Jake White in 2007 as a technical advisor before he turned his attention to his post at the Stormers. He was again recognised as a crucial member of the Springbok management team when Peter de Villiers came calling in early 2011. He was able to implement significant changes such as introducing Nienaber and his methods to the Bok template, and one wonders what could have been accomplished at the 2011 World Cup had Erasmus been incorporated at an earlier stage.
The official line from WP is that Erasmus has left the union because he wants to pursue other coaching opportunities, but keo.co.za understands that he has endured one too many clashes with the union’s administrators and is fed up with the amateurish manner in which the union is run. Some administrators will feel that Erasmus’s resignation is a sign of victory, but ultimately Cape rugby is the biggest loser. The Stormers and WP will certainly be worse off without his technical expertise and innovation.
The side has already been weakened by the loss of Francois Louw. There is no other player at the union capable of playing that fetching role which is so integral to their defensive game plan. Their attacking ambitions have also been jeopardised by Jaque Fourie, top-scorer for the Cape franchise in 2010 and 2011, signing with a Japanese club. But to lose Erasmus, the man responsible for their dramatic rise from mediocre pretenders in 2007 to perennial contenders in 2010 and 2011 – how can the union suggest that his leaving the Stormers and WP is anything other than a catastrophe?
The region has been robbed of one of South Africa’s great rugby brains. There may be life after Rassie Erasmus, but unfortunately for the Stormers and WP, it won’t be as good.
191 Comments
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16 Jan 2012, 06:35 am
So how much longer are you Kaypies going to let your administrators run teh place like a mine club, with no demand for preformance by them? Are you slaapstadders so useless that you will just keep sleeping through the decades of uselessness by WP /Stronters? What a bunch of useless b@stards… why are none of you Cape fans clamouring for the administrators heads? they have been riding their own personal gravy train for waay too long now…
16 Jan 2012, 06:50 am
@SjamBok-151: An excellent post. Had me in stitches. Beyootiful! lol
16 Jan 2012, 06:52 am
Just wanted to add one thing to one of the first of obviously many blind WePee worshipping articles on Keo during 2012:
16 Jan 2012, 06:53 am
SSSSSHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRKSSSSSSS
FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
16 Jan 2012, 06:55 am
Sjambok.Too right. Mind you the same applies to our gutless cousins in other parts of the country as well. I don’t know what Mostett is cackling about. The Sharks are also masters at letting young talent slip away while recruiting broken down had beens – they just have less talent to lose.
16 Jan 2012, 06:55 am
Sjambok.Too right. Mind you the same applies to our gutless cousins in other parts of the country as well. I don’t know what Hg Is cackling about. The Sharks are also masters at letting young talent slip away while recruiting broken down had beens – they just have less talent to lose.
16 Jan 2012, 06:56 am
Sorry double post.
16 Jan 2012, 06:56 am
My support during S15 this year:
1. SHARKS
Daylight…
2. Lions
3. Bulls/Cheetahs
Farken sunshiny day daylight…
5. Stormers
16 Jan 2012, 06:57 am
same reason you sharkievarkies still got big ears wearing your backward mercenary club garters like a jockstrap round his red reindeer nose
least slaapstad got to the knockout stages of both comps last 2 years … whereabouts did the guppy yuppies get again…. can’t quite remember it was such a non participating event.
16 Jan 2012, 06:59 am
@stormer in a teacup-156: Sjambok is 100% right… The WePee/Stronters from Slaapstaad have had a Gravy Train for too long that is now rapidly running out of Gravy…
Schweeeet! lol
16 Jan 2012, 07:00 am
HG You are so blind you will never see daylight.
16 Jan 2012, 07:01 am
@ashampoopaloo-159: Sharks were in the knockout stages last year too, numbnut…
Give yourself a poesklap for rank stupidity…
16 Jan 2012, 07:02 am
@stormer in a teacup-161: I see things only in Black and White…
No shades of blue and white streeptrui for me in this game played in heaven…
16 Jan 2012, 07:05 am
We are Black,
We are White,
We are…
We are…
Farken Dynamite…
SHARKS!
16 Jan 2012, 07:05 am
yeah they got knocked out all right… sharkievarkies got knocked out cold.. not once .. twice… knocked out silly.. thats how knocked out or knocked up those hapless blind as bat ruddy eyed schmucks from the last bastion of magisterial imperialist colonialism got horsewhipped out the knockouts last time around.
16 Jan 2012, 07:10 am
@ashampoopaloo-165: Well, I didn’t see the Stronters (Thx Sjambok) win anything too… Looks like they also got Poesklapped silly straight out of the Compo just when they thought they were on top of the world…
Sharks will again be in the business end of the comp this year and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least, considering their gravy train shenanigans, that the Stronters suck the hindtit this year out of all the SA sides….
lol
16 Jan 2012, 07:17 am
Simply the best…
Better than all the rest…
Better than any team,
Any team I’ve ever seen…
SHARKS!
16 Jan 2012, 07:19 am
stronters got rid of rassie the rudderless ring rust street fighter who thinks burgerking is the go to man for all seasons.. now all they gotta do is get burgerking away from first receiver and we good to go..
stronters still haven’t learned that the incredible hulk ain’t that incredible no more, so lets see if schalkie hulkie still gonna play chief cook and bottle washer fly half, 8th man, first center and fetcher all rolled into one.. then there ain’t no hope for any silverware this year, … not that sharkievarkies got any silverware to boast about either … but lets see without rassie confusing the hell out of everyone how the stronters go.. long as burgerking ain’t carrying that weight a long time another whole season.. stronters might just surprise you yet.
16 Jan 2012, 07:21 am
@Heavens Game-166:
You have said the same thing for the last two years, I expect you to be wrong……………………………………………….again !!!!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:24 am
To my dear Scarlett O’Skop: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
(Apologies to Gone with the Wind)
SHARKS all the way… Stronters be damned…
16 Jan 2012, 07:26 am
So …………………………van staaden, ADi, Smit, JLP, Terblanche all leaving /have left the sharks……………will be interesting to see how they go without the “aura” and Mr “experience” Terblanche…………………………… bit thin on the leadership front ??
I see a lot of sardine lovers are punting Bissy for the role, good choice imo !!!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:28 am
@justrugby-169: Your voice break, Mini Me or is that just an involuntary squeal?
16 Jan 2012, 07:29 am
@justrugby-171: All Hail General Lambighini… Simple
16 Jan 2012, 07:29 am
@Heavens Game-170:
So which of our players are you wishing into intensive care with horrific injuries this year ??
16 Jan 2012, 07:32 am
General Lambie
Freddie the French Connection
Frans Steyn raring to get back
Best pack on the planet
Eish, a good year beckons…
Yup, its the Sharks year.
Maybe a Sharks vs Lions S15 final…
Now wouldn’t that be nice? lol
16 Jan 2012, 07:32 am
@Heavens Game-173:
Will be interesting, I like Bambi, could be an inspired choice as captain ??
Realistically I don’t think it will happen, perhaps a v/c role !!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:33 am
@justrugby-174: Ahem…All of them…?
(Ask no questions, tell no lies)
16 Jan 2012, 07:35 am
@Heavens Game-175:
LOL……. best pack on the planet …………………….you have no locks except for that fine product from CT in ol Ross Skeate !!! but truth be told he would battle to make most starting line ups in the S15 !!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:36 am
@justrugby-176: Lambie Cappie and Daniel Captain of Vice.
16 Jan 2012, 07:39 am
@justrugby-178: Just by pulling on the legendary Sharks jersey Skeate has improved as a player 200%… Skeate got more ballas now than Bekker and his wife put together…
16 Jan 2012, 07:43 am
@Heavens Game-180:
LOL
You a funny guy…………………………………..not !! btw Bekker is not married (anymore) !!!!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:45 am
Morning all… from a rather hot, still Cape Town…!!
Have a great day and week…
Enough of this off-season sheet now… time for the rugby to start…!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:45 am
@Heavens Game-180:
Cheers smelly sardine, things to do !!!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:45 am
Hey JR…
Trust you had a good holiday break…!
16 Jan 2012, 07:48 am
@justrugby-181: Yeah… The unmarried thing seems to happen more often than not in slaapstad… Its the pink outta the closet metrosexual thing… Stronters go soft every walking minute under the mountain it seems…
Exactly my point about ballas… Skeate has hardenedthefck up immeasurably since donning a man’s jersey…
16 Jan 2012, 07:49 am
@Heavens Game-180:
Sorry mate… but I’m an avid Sharks fan…
Have you heard of the Durban club called Czar (yeah truly I’m not kidding ironically a Greek thing)… Ross Skeate is their head honcho promo girl… see Twitter… him combined with Alistair ‘Party-boy’ Hargreaves… we are truly farked… you’d think Plumtree whose only tertiary qualifications were being a door-men at CC’s and the Wellington RSL would stamp that out!?
16 Jan 2012, 07:50 am
@justrugby-183: Cheers Strontloper… Which speedo you wearing today?
16 Jan 2012, 07:51 am
@bryce_in_oz-186: Eish…
16 Jan 2012, 07:54 am
@ufo-184:
Hi UFO
Enjoyed the seasonal break thanks, you ??
Hope you and all the other bloggers have a hugely successful year, sorry for the belated wishes but only just started blogging again !!!!
May all your sides play great rugger and no player get seriously injured and no game be tarnished by suspect refereeing !!!!
16 Jan 2012, 07:56 am
@justrugby-189:
exactly… share your sentiments on all counts…
16 Jan 2012, 08:20 am
@justrugby-189: Amen on that suspect reff’ing comment!
Oh and may the Stormers play to their potential this year.
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